Master of Mattel’s Cinematic Universe: How Robbie Brenner Plans to Build on Blockbuster ‘Barbie’

variety.com:

Brent Lang Executive Editor Last month, Robbie Brenner and a team of Mattel executives made the trek to the Sundance Film Festival.

For five days, they braved thin mountain air to get a sense of the emerging filmmakers who they could enlist to make movies and shows based on Mattel’s line of toys — a collection of childhood favorites that runs the gamut from Hot Wheels to Thomas the Tank Engine to He-Man. “Sundance is where the future is,” says Brenner, who serves as president of Mattel Films. “We’re trying to get in on the ground floor with these great artists before they become the next Christopher Nolan.” The Joy Factory: How Mattel Keeps Its Enduring Brands Present in Pop Culture Sundance, a festival known for embracing rebels and iconoclasts, seems like an odd place to find the right director to oversee the next American Girl movie.

But Brenner made a bold choice when she tapped Greta Gerwig, a filmmaker known for sensitively wrought coming-of-age movies like “Little Women” and “Ladybird,” to oversee an exuberantly pink movie adaptation of “Barbie.” Gerwig maintained the character’s sweetness in a way that pleased the Barbie faithful, while giving the movie a subversive edge that thrilled audiences who didn’t grow up with Skipper, Ken and the rest of the Malibu crew.

The film went on to earn an Oscar best picture nomination while grossing nearly $1.5 billion worldwide. “‘Barbie’ was a proof of concept,” Brenner says. “It let people in the industry know that we’re here, we mean business and we want to set the bar high.” Taking risks is second nature to Brenner, who spent much of her career outside the mainstream, producing indie films such 2013’s “Dallas Buyers Club.” She was surprised when Ynon Kreiz, Mattel’s CEO,.